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Friday, February 14, 2014

Perfect Love

I hummed and hawed all week about what to post on Valentine's Day. 14 things I loved, my favorite Valentine's memories, my ideal Valentine's day, etc., etc, etc. I started several drafts, but nothing stuck.

Then I randomly came across this devotional and, after the last line, knew I HAD to share.

As children, we all dream about happily ever after. We pine away waiting for the knight on the white horse or daydream about love that is never anything less than perfect. When you think of perfect love . . . who do you think of? While most of you probably said Cinderella and Prince Charming; when I think of perfect love, my thoughts turn to Adam and Eve.

Kind of a bad choice for “perfect love” you might say; but Adam and Eve, while best known for the single worst mistake in history, were still the first couple ever made for each other in the literal and spiritual sense. God made Eve especially for Adam. She was made for him and from him. Their relationship was God’s handiwork and despite the whole apple thing, they created quite the life together.

Just like many love stories today, I have never turned a pumpkin into a carriage and my husband has never trotted in on a white horse to save me from some wicked queen. However, I have turned lemons into lemonade many days and he makes the cutest neigh when he gives our kids piggyback rides around the front lawn. We bicker from time to time. We don’t go dancing on Friday nights or awake every morning to breakfast in bed. He snores. I nag. He watches too much Sports Center and I watch too much Lifetime. But while we two are far from perfect, we love each other perfectly. God created our marriage in His perfect manner, in His perfect way . . . as only He can do.

God tells us in 1 John 4:12, “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” So even though Adam and Eve were the epitome of imperfection, even though Adam probably forgot to take out the trash and Eve probably forgot to wash his leaf now and then, their imperfection was made perfect in their love for one another. No matter how flawed they were, their marriage was created in perfect love because the Master created it and He dwelt within the midst.

Don’t stress over living up to the fairytale. Your love story, no matter how simple or how elaborate, was designed by God. He perfected it. He wrote it. He even illustrated it and signed his name on your copy. He’s the author and the finisher. (Hebrews 12:2)

Happily ever after doesn’t always come with ball gowns and white horses. Most of the time, it comes with sweat pants and minivans . . . but that’s ok, because if it comes from God, it’s perfect and nothing less.

Hope you loved this as much as I did and hope it spoke to your heart. Now I'm off to spend my Valentine's Day driving around running errands in my minivan and then coming home and changing into sweatpants to enjoy heart shaped pizza with my kids :)